The Delhi Police has arrested a man for allegedly cheating passengers at the National Capital’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport by posing as a student of a reputed university and then taking money from them for his travel conveyance on the pretext that he missed his flight.
The accused has been identified as Modela Venkata Dinesh Kumar, a native of Guntur district in Andhara Pradesh. Police said that he has cheated more than 100 passengers so far in the last four to five years.
Police said that on December 19, 2021, complainant, who is a resident of PG Mens Hostel Maulana Azad Medical College, travelled from Baroda to Delhi IGI Airport T-3, near the belt, where the accused approached him and stated that he is a student of a reputed university.
According to the complainant, the accused displayed his ID card of the said university and requested that he had come from Chandigarh and had missed his connecting flight to Vishakhapatnam. He induced him and showed him that a flight ticket to Vishakhapatnam is costing Rs. 15,000 and he only had Rs. 6,500 with him.
Later, he convinced the victim to pay the difference as he promised to return the money once he reached his destination. The victim then paid Rs. 9,250 by Google pay in his account, the complainant alleged.
When the accused did not return his money despite demanding several times, he approached police and a case was registered in the matter, police said.
According to Sanjay Tyagi, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), IGI airport, the team through its sources and electronic surveillance analyzed and monitored the CCTV cameras installed at the terminals and located one suspected person who used to visit frequently at IGI Airport.
"On December 30, on the basis of CCTV footage, an alleged suspected person was apprehended from IGI Airport T-2 when he was trying to cheat other passenger," said the DCP.
Interrogation revealed that the accused used to visit different airports for cheating passengers. He used to introduce himself as a student of a reputed university and cheated passengers on the pretext of missing his flight. Once he was able to convince the passenger, he used to get the ticket money transferred into his bank account and would cheat the passengers, said the DCP.
It also came to light that five more FIR's have already been registered against the accused and on Twitter also, there were many complaints against him, police said.